Minutes before Torgue's announcement came, a gruff looking fellow wearing a red striped mask had cornered Cary Loak. That girl sure knew how to run into trouble fast, even in a place like Pandora. Did I mention everything on it wants to kill you?
"Never should've come here!" he yelled as he pointed his SMG at the girl.
"I was about to say the same thing!" Cary Loak said as she pulled out an SDU. "Eh well, not really… but I suggest you better run before I unleash my Bordermon!"
The fellow, or 'marauder' as they called this kind of low-ranked grunt in the chaotic bandit hierarchy, shook his head in confusion for a second.
"What kind of a stupid name is that?" he said. His name is Reggie by the way, not that that should be indicative of anything…
"Okay, I warned you, go Ba…" Cary said before she looked at her beeping wristband. "Eh, I have to take this, hold on a sec."
She threw the SDU on the ground while she was distracted and flicked on the incoming message. As Mister Torgue talked more and more, her face lit up with a mix of ecstatic joy and childish glee.
"OMG, a Bordermon tournament, this is so awesooooooome!" Cary said.
Meanwhile Reggie was occupied with trying not to get eaten by what seemed to be a giant four-legged rhinoceros beetle with chitin plates protecting its head and torso, chomping away at his face with its huge underjaws. Reggie was losing and fast.
"Get this thing off me you stupid b*tch!" poor Reggie the marauder said as he tried not to drink his own abundantly flowing blood as it sprayed all over the borok as the latter cut into Reggie's face.
Cary turned to him and noticed what was going on. However instead of recalling the creature, she put her knuckles on her hips and leaned forward.
"Hey hey, I'll have you know that's a borok, one of the most ferocious creatures there is. His name is…" she said.
Reggie punched the borok in its multiple small eyes, crawled out from underneath it and with blood spraying everywhere he ran like hell, yelling:
"Psychotic b*tch, what the f*ck! What the actual…"
Etcetera etcetera, you get the idea. It's amazing what an imminent death caused by gaping facial wounds will do to your language.
"Bye Reggie! Oh look, he left behind some money, which he most definitely did because I won the battle!" Cary said and picked up the bloody stacks of cash lying right next to the borok. She patted it on the back. "Good boy!"
Meanwhile Reine was causing a fuss at the ticket booth for interplanetary levels.
"Just give me something, anything! I'll give anything to not be on Pandora today! Look, I've got these fine guns…" she said, being exceptionally good at predicting what would happen to her if she didn't get off this planet soon.
The lady behind the fourteen sheets of bulletproof glass looked unfazed by the bandaged traveler's request, as well as a bit distorted because of all those sheets. Then again, it was a small price to pay for staying safe on a planet full of gun-toting idiots.
"Don't we all, sir?" the booth lady said, causing Reine to grit her teeth. "Now I'm very sorry, but these tickets are expensive and those guns will not nearly cover the expenses. Now, I do hear that those monster-trapping SDUs are becoming quite the rage, so you could sell it to me and maybe we can work out a spot in a cargo ship."
"I didn't want to offer, but…" Reine said as she thought about losing the only way to keep Buzzsaw with her. She'd have to abandon it in exchange for escaping this looming fate.
Our badass, soon to be ex-protagonist (of badassery) pulled out her SDU containing Buzzsaw and said:
"Okay, how about we…"
"Is that a Bordermon SDU you're holding there?" it sounded.
Reine turned around with a glare that could have been mistaken for two deadly laser sights.
"You're mistaken, go back in line!" she said.
The man wasn't backing down. His mohawk bristling in the wind, the bandit grinned before pulling out an SDU and throwing it on the ground as the line of people scattered.
"Bordermon battaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!" an illiterate loudmouth said before being shot in the knee by Reine to shut him up.
As the loudmouth whimpered and crawled away to safety, Reine eyed the mohawk bandit. In front of it, something large was being digistructed. She said:
"I might not have a Bordermon, but I still got plenty of bullets in my rifle to gut you and your pet. Now back off!"
The bandit shrugged.
"Battle's already started, man. Good luck with my capture, he was pretty angry when I put him in there," he said as he ran to find some cover, narrowly dodging three of Reine's bullets, with his shield stopping a fourth before he ducked away.
Our bandaged traveler had quickly caught onto what was going on and saved the rest of her bullets for the Pandoran creature that looked to be the size of a small bus. As the digistruct lights dissipated, a ridiculously oversized leech appeared with small spindly legs to hold itself upright, two fleshy appendages that allowed it to jump considerable distances even with its current size and two huge jaws on its front. All those typical 'in-your-face-and-then-rip-off-your-cheeks' traits that multiple Pandoran species had paled however compared to its acquired elemental powers. Judging from its color it was a badass shock scythid. A big electric ball that it released a moment later confirmed that theory rather quickly. Reine jumped out of the way and slid a few feet on her side before picking herself up again as another attack came flying. One or two of those hits would strip her shields and then her direct flesh would be next.
"If I found out who supplied that mohawk with his SDU, I'll f*cking kill him," Reine muttered.
Then she remembered the thing could fly and she ran for the next house as just a few seconds later the thing touched down with a thundering thump right where she had been standing, screeching as its prey had eluded it. For now.
Reine had to keep running. If she stood still even for a few seconds, she'd be blown apart by the electrifying projectiles or tore in half by the Scythid's jaws. However, though doing so kept her out of the monstrous thing's grasp, it also severely hampered her accuracy as the bullets attested that went past the scythid without as much as making a flesh wound. She needed an edge and a plan, even if she craved for a beheading of that mohawk moron. Here's to hoping she could defeat his capture and kill him. Alright, she thought, it's time.
She turned around and immediately eyed the badass scythid as it came flying. Reine rolled under it and threw her SDU on the ground, releasing Buzzsaw.
"Get that thing away from me now!" she yelled.
Buzzsaw understood what it had to do. In an instant it had curled itself up a ball and started rolling, using a ramp to become airborne and crash into the scythid's hind wing, sending it crashing down. As soon as it had come to a stop however, it immediately got up again and screeched at its new opponent. Buzzsaw squeaked right back before dodging a volley of more crackling projectiles the scythid sent flying at it.
"Ohohoho, that little spiderant won't last long. Getting into that tournament will be ea…" the mohawk guy said before hearing a click right next to his head.
He looked up from his hiding spot in the trash and saw Reine hanging over him, holding a sniper rifle to his head. That would make quite a splash if she pulled the trigger and her finger seemed awfully shaky.
"Call that thing back or I'll make sure it has you for lunch!" Reine sneered.
The guy shrugged even as the barrel of the sniper rifle moved a bit as he did so. He didn't seem to be some ordinary moron that captured a badass death bug… it appeared he was just plain insane. He answered:
"You know man, that doesn't sound nearly as threatening if you sound like a wo… Agh!"
After Reine had wacked him over the head twice, he seemed a bit more agreeable. Emphasis on 'bit'.
"Okay okay, I'll return it! … If I knew how," he said.
"I would say come again, but I should've expected you to be that stupid. Give me its SDU now!" Reine yelled.
"Fine. Here," mohawk guy said.
"Thanks," Reine said and then shot him in the head. "Moron."
With a glance she saw Buzzsaw rolling around like crazy, with crackles around his carapace indicating he'd been hit multiple times. Knowing he wasn't very durable, Reine had to hurry up and do something stupid. Or genius. Whether it worked or not would decide which one it was going to be. She started running. The scythid saw her coming and instead of charging like its smaller brethren would, it sent a shotgun blast of countless shock projectiles to greet his prey. Humans tasted better electrocuted anyway.
"F*ck f*ck f*ck, f*******************************ck!" Reine said as she slid until she was just a few meters away from the scythid which looked down confused as Reine jumped towards it and smacked the SDU against it, digidestructing it back into it as it screeched and shook violently.
"Bordermon acquuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuired!" the loudmouth said.
Reine drew her sniper rifle to pop a round in him, but he seemed to have learned the lesson to do his announcer thing behind a good and thick amount of cover.
"I'll get you next time, just you wait," Reine said. You could take that as promise more certain than a bank CEO's statements. Wait no, a sleazy used car salesman's seal of approval. No err… Anyway, even if didn't hear Reine's promise she'd kill you, you'd be pretty damn sure she'd make good on it. She said these things regularly, yet her list was always quite short…
It had been quiet up till now, but now that the scythid had been returned to its SDU, people crawled out of their hiding places and started cheering.
"Woohoo, that was awesome!" one girl yelled and others chimed in, even though they could've been killed many times over by all the bullets and shock balls flying around.
"Smile!" an ECHO photographer said before taking a picture. Reine would soon find out her Bordermon fighter profile had been uploaded to the ECHOnet. Also, her picture looked horrible even without an awkward smile.
"MISTER TORGUE HERE!" said exactly the guy you think would say that. Mister Torgue… who else? "Don't forget that it is perfectly allowed to kill other fighters and SLASH or their Bordermon! So if you don't want to go up against tons of badass variants, kill them asap! Torgue out!"
"Ah f*ck me," Reine said facepalming before pointing her sniper rifle at a guy that was about to speak up. "You will witness an ejection for the last time if you open up that mouth."
Meanwhile, a large man wearing spiky armor had just finished listening to his underling's recounting of what Mister Torgue was planning.
"Well… let's see if we can't get us some of these Bordermon, shall we?" the man said. "Men, it is time for the Bonecrushers to go hunting!"
To be continued…